Quint Olympics and Fathers Day

First, I have to write a little bit about my dad. One of the things that we have said in the past is that we feel we were greatly helped by our parents in preparing for these babies. This applies to my dad as well. One of the most important things I learned from my dad was to relax and be patient. At least, that was what he usually did. When he was here a few weeks ago, Rachelle was amazed at how he could patiently help one of the babies while there was complete chaos going on around him. One of the things noticed early on was that he looks a lot like Kyndall. This is fitting since Kyndall is usually the one who sits there calmly and waits for stuff.

When I was a kid, I remember one time when I had done something really bad (not sure what it was) and he had to spank me. I remember that he the patience to talk with me about the bad thing as well as the spanking for what seemed like hours before actually doing it. If he had just got really mad and spanked me on the spot, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it. However, after calmly talking to me about what I had done and saying that, by the rules, the punishment had to be a spanking, it made the whole thing infinitely more memorable. So much so that I remember really not wanting to do whatever it was that I had done.

I was also always impressed that he bravely participated with my mom in a whole lot of things that he didn't have much experience in before they got married. Before getting married, his life was mostly sports. He played football and ran track in high school and then also ran track briefly in college. I also remember him once playing basketball with my friends and I during my high school years and watching him make something like 19 free throw shots in a row...and I didn't even know he liked basketball! Anyway, after getting married, he started doing stuff that my mom had always liked such as singing. He played Judah in a church-sponsored production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and even had a solo. I was always just really impressed that he was humble enough to jump right in and try new things like that without having a whole lot of experience. This is something similar to what I have been having to do myself (with these babies) and what almost all fathers do when they have kids. I am glad he was a good example in the area of bravely trying new things.

Like I mentioned earlier, my dad was into sports. On that note, we have decided that we need to start training our kids now. There is going to be some rivalry and they are going to have to work some things out between them so we thought we would start their training with some friendly competition. This episode of WQ+2 is the the first event of the Quint Olympics hosted by Riley and Kaiya. The event is Toy Wrestling and involves putting two babies in a square on the floor and having them wrestle over a toy. If they give up the toy or leave the square, they loose. We thought of this event because we noticed that Rustin just likes to take toys and some of the other babies have started to fight back:

Why do it?

Well, here I am again. I don’t have a video just yet but I have two in the works. A lot of things have happened to the babies and I have been dutifully videotaping these things. I just haven’t found enough time to go and actually make real videos out of everything but I plan to soon. I have decided to blog a little bit more and see if I can get in one video a month. I think that ought to be just about right.

Today, I was in the airport on my way back from a conference in Las Vegas and I went to a store in the airport to get a smoothie. I really like smoothies and have a really good recipe that Rachelle and I came up with but that is another story. In this smoothie store was a sign that read:

If it isn’t fun, why do it?

As I read that sign, I decided that it may have been one of the most profoundly stupid things I had ever heard. As I was waiting for my smoothie to blend, I sat there and pondered all of the things that were not fun but were definitely “worth it”. Some of the ones I thought of were:

• Exercising regularly (at least I assume this is worth it since I don’t really do it)
• Getting a root canal when you need one. (Again, I have to assume on this one)
• Have ANY kind of surgery when you really need it. (I have been a witness to this one so I at least know it is accurate)
• Repairing your car (Have had to do this many times and it is painful but better than walking)
• Learning to do math (Riley is currently going through this one and I keep trying to tell him it will one day be worth it.)

And one of most important not-fun-but-worth-it things is raising kids. I had been at the conference for about four days and I was really missing Rachelle and the kids. It is times like that when you can look and see that it really is worth it. Most of the time, a mom or a dad like Rachelle or me is just trying to get by from day to day and keep from going insane. However, when you can step back and see how wonderful your kids are and how wonderful it is to have kids, you realize that it is all worth it.

A little later I started thinking that maybe the sign in the smoothie shop was actually meant to make me think of all the things that ARE worth it even though they are not fun. If so, it was effective because I started thinking about how I really appreciate many of the difficult things I have gone through because of what I have learned from them. I think I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that their true intention was to make me a better person and not to suggest that I simply should be buying more sugar-filled smoothies (because they are fun) instead of eating healthy and bad tasting food (because it is not fun).

Now, I did say that I am planning on having a video, and I really will just as soon as I can find time to stop having so much fun with my cute but runny-nosed babies.